Exploring Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises”

Anyone who enjoys classic literature is always keeping an eye out for that “next great read” that they somehow have managed to miss. If you have – to date – somehow missed Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises,” then this is certainly the “next great read” you need to check out!

Although “The Sun Also Rises” – which was originally published in 1926 – is the second novel Hemingway published, many consider it to have truly been his first (after all, his only previous novel was “The Torrents of Spring,” which he wrote in order to force his first publisher to release him from his contract!). “The Sun Also Rises,” on the other hand, was the book that launched Hemingway’s eventually meteoric literary career into orbit.

But “The Sun Also Rises” is more than just a significant milestone in the career of one of the greatest American authors; it is also considered by many to be an excellent read! The book is set shortly after the end of the first World War, in 1920s Paris. And this was the perfect setting for Hemingway’s first great novel, as well, as Paris in the 1920s – just after the end of the first World War – is where he lived at the time.

Hemingway and his fellow, younger writers were called the “lost generation” by author Gertrude Stein, and in this book, Hemingway paints a parallel picture of the lives led by this “lost generation.” While some say this book is about heartbreak and wanderlust and loss, and while others say this book is about nothing, it is truly about that lost generation. More than any other book of its time, this book painted a perfect picture of the restlessness of the post-WWI world. And what’s more, Hemingway brought this world to life using a stripped-down, straightforward style of sparse prose and simple language that no one had used before.

In the history of American literature, few writers have been as influential as Hemingway, as he was the first writer to embrace a conversational tone of writing in place of the academic tone that was so prevalent at the time. But this book is more than simply an example of what literature was to become; it is also a great book that is just plain fun to read!